FREE Portrait Drawing Class

Sketch portraits that accurately resemble your subject using simple techniques in this FREE class. Consistently sketch faces with a striking resemblance to your subject. In these FREE lessons from renowned artist Gary Faigin, you’ll learn to create a block-in sketch that maps the shapes and patterns of your subject’s face in accurate proportion. As you draw, you’ll create “placeholders” for each facial feature, so you know their exact position, size and relationship to each other. Continue with tips for refining the details of the mouth, eye sockets, chin and the base of the nose. Then, succeed at capturing the nuances of anyone’s eyes by breaking them down into a series of simple shapes.

Find out how to draw realistic faces, and create portraits that look just like your subject!

Lesson plan

Lesson 1. How to Use Your Free Mini Class

Lesson 2. Recognizing People

Meet your instructor, artist and author Gary Faigin, as he shares his techniques for consistently capturing a person’s likeness. You’ll discover a new — and better — way to draw your subjects. Gary illustrates how drawing facial features is different from drawing a likeness, as well as how to use shapes and patterns to start sketching out your portrait.

Lesson 3. Mapping the Face

Apply the tips you learned in Lesson 2 to start drawing your first portrait. Gary explains the concept of mapping and why it’s the most important step in the portrait process. You’ll also learn how to map out a face by sketching the biggest shapes and patterns in relation to each other before breaking them down into smaller parts.

Lesson 4. Refining the Shapes

Refine your portrait by focusing on the large shapes you created in Lesson 3. Learn how to sketch smaller features by shading in the mouth, eye sockets, chin and the base of the nose. You’ll also discover Gary’s tips for narrowing in on the eyes, often the trickiest facial feature to draw.

Lesson 5. Drawing Variations

Now that you know the basics of mapping out faces and drawing shapes and patterns, Gary details how to pinpoint the features that make each face different. Learn more of his tips and techniques as he sketches five more people and reveals what it is that makes them unique.